I felt supremely complimented and amused by Kenneth Weisbrode's apology for
using my adopted calling card of Untimely Thoughts. No apology is needed; I have
generously borrowed (stole?) from one of the 20th century's greatest social
critics - Maxim Gorky. His weekly column of the same title chronicled the
Bolshevik revolution with a degree of honesty that had him eventually shut down
by the regime he supported - the same regime that lost interest in dissent once
it had the ability to close the public sphere.

On Weisbrode's ideas concerning NATO, I have only the following untimely
thoughts. I am not a NATO expert, surely there are many on this list. However,
the current bickering within the alliance over Iraq is probably exactly the kind
of restrictive-combative alliance relations Putin desires to avoid at this time.
Russia is playing the role of being the international wild card that old friends
and foes now appreciate.

It appears that the US does not really think of NATO as anything more than a
convenient staging ground for its geopolitical interests far from its shores.
Rumsfeld's recent comments in Europe seem to confirm this observation. NATO in
its current (evolving) state is not an alliance for today's Russia. This country
is attempting to re-establish itself in the world as an independent actor that
can generate more attractive geopolitical dividends on its own.

Additionally, given the change of international borders in this part world
over the past decade, why would a group of content countries like Benelux, or
any current member state of the alliance, have an interest in China's
renegotiation of its borders with Russia? I assume that most readers on this
list, like me, have lived most of their lives in a world when borders rarely
changed. Changing borders might, in this new century, become the norm.

Many of Russia's borders could easily change. NATO has a build-in aversion to
risk. The world in which Russia exists is rife with risk. The upside for Russia
is that risk is part of everyday life - on every street corner at home as well
as on the world stage. It is probably better for Russia to deal with its current
security predicaments on its own before looking to NATO for help - or the other
way around.

Weisbrode does bring up a good point on the future of the alliance. It is my
hope experts on the JRL will comment on his interesting and untimely thought.